Chime Financial just decided to stop renting and buy the house. The publicly traded neobank announced on September 8 that it will acquire Stride Bank, N.A. for $590 million in cash, with plans to rebrand the institution as Chime Bank, N.A. once the deal closes.
The move transforms Chime from a fintech that relies on partner banks to process its transactions into something closer to a full-fledged bank, at least structurally. Stride has been Chime’s banking partner for over seven years, so this is less of a blind date and more of a long-overdue marriage.
The math behind the deal
The $590 million price tag works out to roughly 1.5 times Stride’s tangible book value. Chime expects the acquisition to generate more than $100 million in net synergies. The savings come from two main sources: eliminating the sponsor bank fees Chime currently pays, and expanding its lending product suite with direct control over a bank charter.
The deal is structured as an all-cash transaction and is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings per share.
